Mexican cement maker ready to help Trump build border wall

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican cement maker is ready to lend its services to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to build the wall he wants to erect on the southern border of the United States to curb immigration.

“We can’t be choosy,” Enrique Escalante, Chief Executive Officer of Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) said in an interview. “We’re an important producer in that area and we have to respect our clients on both sides of the border.”

Republican Trump campaigned vowing to build a “big, beautiful, powerful” wall across the 2,000 mile (3,200 km) frontier in order to stop illegal immigrants from Mexico, which he accused of sending rapists and drug traffickers north.

The campaign of the New York businessman who has never previously held public office was widely reviled in Mexico.

Parts of the border are already divided by high fences, and a huge part of the boundary runs along the Rio Grande river.

Based in Chihuahua, a large northern state bordering Texas and New Mexico, GCC is one of the biggest construction materials companies in Mexico. It generates around 70 percent of its sales in the United States, where it also has three plants.

Escalante said Trump’s plans to invest in energy and infrastructure in the United States augured well for the firm.

“For the business we’re in, Trump is a candidate that does favor the industry quite a bit,” Escalante said.

GCC, whose shares are trading at their highest levels since 2008, is 23 percent owned by Mexican multinational cement company Cemex, which at the end of September announced plans to sell its stake.